Tag Archives: Kara Powell

Book Review: Growing Young by Kara Powell, Jake Mulder, and Brad Griffin

The Good:

REAL Solution. I don’t know about you, but I am tired of books, articles, and social media posts that just surmise an issue with this current generation and the church. I’m tired of reading about the problems, and I was refreshed to read in this book – REAL and REACHABLE solutions to the issues of growing young. A heartfelt thank you to the all the work the writers put into this.

Dedicated Research. This was hard work to put this together. It was a clear dedication of the writers and research team to not leave a stone unturned. They went to the small churches to the megas, and found answers to the growing young question. That is something the reader will appreciate.

REAL Testimonies. These aren’t just ideas. These are real people who have been affected by churches that have intentionally reached out to this generation in their church. The testimonies were not just glossed-over stories from pastors, but from people inside the church who have benefited and lived out the ministry changes and direction.

The Bad:

Nope, nope, nope. There was one quote that made me quote Petrie on Land Before Time and say “Oh, no no no no”. “We wonder if sermon preparation and preaching is an area in which some leaders could invest less time”. While they did give this quote with the caveat of holding God’s Word at the “highest value”, it still is a dangerous statement.

The Random Boxes. This is a minor complaint, but it seemed to break the flow of the chapter when a box of random information was placed in the middle of a chapter. Suggest maybe placing this in the context of the chapter or at the end.

The Grade: A. I tell ya what this book did. Honestly, it gave me great encouragement that my philosophy of ministry was on the right track with this generation. On the flip side, it challenged me immensely in the weakness of my own ministry in reaching this generation. That is what this book will do to you, encourage and challenge you and your ministry.

As mentioned in a previous blog article “Why You Should Teach Theology to Teenagers”, I decided to bravely go where few youth pastors have gone before…a series on theology. Theology and doctrine are the foundation of our beliefs. And it is what you believe and who you believe in that drives how you will live your life. This makes this theology series called “Theology of a Teenager” a potentially life-changing series. So, realizing the importance of these lessons, I decided to use several resources to enhance my study and prep for each lesson. Below is a review of the resources used…

Curriculum Review: Theology Resources

The Good:

Clear by Chris Folmsbee. This curriculum does a great job of breaking down each major doctrine in a very understandable way. The writer presents the material in a way that is very teachable with workable outlines. This resource was used heavily in the outline phases of the lessons. It often hit the major points that I desired to discuss and helped me narrow down my discussion points. Also, Folmsbee does a great job of integrating Scripture throughout. Large volume of Bible passages to work with in every chapter was very helpful.

Practical Christian Theology by Floyd H. Barackman. Why is this on the list you ask? While it is true, this is not a teen curriculum. However, this was very helpful in bringing it a notch. I warned the students that there would be challenging lessons throughout. But rather than getting eye rolls, I got enthusiasm and teens who were up to the challenge. With this book, you are able to dive a little deeper and challenge your students. I found the students appreciated me not dumbing down the material, but taking it to a higher level. Those that were still new, I still had balanced lesson with the Gospel clear throughout the series.

Creative Bible Lessons in Essential Theology by Andrew Hedges. Compared to the two above, this resource was not used as much. But, this curriculum was valuable for other reasons. It provided great discussion questions to keep the lessons interactive, rather than a long lecture. Also, each lesson has a “breaking the ice” section which was helpful to bridge a game time or announcements to the lesson time.

The Bad:

I feel bad for even putting this in the bad category because of all that Kara Powell has contributed to youth ministry. But I have to be honest, and it is not entirely her fault. This resource was a hand-me-down from 1999. So the material is a bit out of date. There has been quite a progression of technology since then, and it puts many of the illustrations and teacher resources non-usable. Also, the curriculum is very difficult to use and many of the teaching ideas require prep time and a great deal of materials. This is not a curriculum tool that I would suggest using for a theology series.

Book Review: The Sticky Faith Guide for Your Family by Dr. Kara Powell

The Good:

Real. This book could not get any more real. We are talking about real advice from real families. This book is essentially a collection of advice from parents for the sole purpose of building a faith that sticks in their kids. This is not advice from a panel of psychologists or “parent experts”…no these are real parents that are in the trenches just like you grasping at ideas that will really work and help their child develop their faith.

Practical (Extremely). This may be the most practical parenting book I have ever picked up. From the very start, I was underlining ideas that I could implement right away. In fact, the author even warns the reader to take it slow and just take 5 ideas at a time. Otherwise, it could be overwhelming since there are so many good ideas. And since there are so many ideas, it is easy for any family to find something that fits their family situation (i.e. single parent homes, teenager-filled home, young children, etc.)

Ministry Treasures. From chapter 7 which talks about the elder generation’s impact on kids, to the chapter on mentoring…these can be very valuable in building a ministry that is inter-generational. Pastors, youth workers, children’s ministry volunteers…these are pages that need to be read and ideas that can be implemented tomorrow.

Gone too soon. Although I am a parent of young kids, everyone tells me the time goes so quickly. These pages are full of ideas to value the time and use it to have a real impact for your child’s relationship with God and others.

The Bad:

Occasional Bad Advice. Here are a few examples: #1: Allow your child to seek another church/skip youth group – sure this is a little out of context, but did not like reading it, nonetheless. #2: Apologize – Not found in the Bible. Encourage forgiveness over apologizing.

Wide Denomination Range. This is more of a warning for the reader. This is to a wide (Christian-based) denomination audience, so as long as you know that going in, it will prevent confusion.

Could use a little more grace. Many parents are suffering having a prodigal son or daughter. I think this book is missing a chapter on ministering to those that fade away or are rebelling. And also a reinforcement of the idea of there is no perfect plan, but it is of God’s grace. This is in there, but could use more of these types of encouragement and reminders throughout.

The Grade: B.

In the fall, I will be recommending this book to my parents as a valuable resource, and I recommend it to you as well. Powell provides incredible ideas for parents to have a deep impact on their children’s faith. I can almost guarantee any parent can find at least 5 ideas from this book that they can start doing immediately. And everyone is different, so this book provides an incredible variety of families and ideas for everyone to try. The realness, the variety, and the potential impact on children make this book a highly recommended parenting source.

Creativity. The creativity has to be the first thing that stands out to me. You can tell right off the bat that the writers have experience in youth ministry. This is not purely a lecture series, but an interactive teaching approach that is easy for the teacher to use. The illustrations were dynamite, and I was rarely disappointed in the variety.

Purpose. The premise falls in line with my youth ministry philosophy. As it says in Colossians 1:23, the goal in youth ministry should be: lead teenagers to a faith that lasts, that continues, and in this case, that sticks. With so many students leaving church following graduation, there must be something that we could present to our departing seniors that will help change the trend. This curriculum aims to buck the trend, and point the students towards a faith that isn’t tied to youth group.

Easy to Use. No matter the experience level of the teacher, this curriculum was pretty easy to use. Sure, there was study involved, but even if a parent wanted to use this with their upper-classmen, it could happen.

The Bad:

The video clips. I wasn’t too impressed with the content of the clips, and was even concerned at some of the wording for young Christians. Be careful, and do not feel pressured to use the clips. At times they add to the teaching, and other times they are simply not needed.

Activities. Some of the activities or worship practices were out of my comfort zone. It’s good to have creativity, but again, don’t feel pressured in doing something that may cause more confusion than growth. This was rare in the series, but it did appear.

The Grade: B

The variety and ease of use allowed this to be a positive grade. There were some flaws, and the spiritual depth needed an extra boost every now and then, but for the most part, I enjoyed the series. In fact, I was able to use this material for a transition class where I combined junior high, high school, & young adults. Very few curricula could ever be that versatile.

The curriculum did its job in providing valuable lessons for the senior to transition into adult life. It’s an important enough venture to look into this curriculum for a number of reasons: very few curricula out there like this, the epidemic of seniors leaving church after graduation, and the importance of the topics covered. Just those few reasons alone should encourage you to take a look.